1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to methods of and systems for managing interactive communication campaigns over a computer network, such as the Internet.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is known in the prior art to provide a web-based hosted solution through which business entities create and manage interactive or notification communications campaigns. An example of an interactive communications campaign is a telephone campaign to determine whether a target recipient desires to transfer a credit card balance to a new account, a campaign to remind a recipient that a credit card payment is due and to offer the recipient an opportunity to speak with a customer representative concerning any payment issues, or the like. The hosted solution typically is implemented as an application (or “managed”) service provider. One or more business entities (“customers”) that desire to use the service typically register and access the service through an on-line (e.g., web-based) portal. In one representative use scenario, the managed service provider entity provides outbound telemarketing services on behalf of participating customers. The campaign typically is provisioned by the customer. Thus, for example, using a web-based interface, a participating customer defines a script for the campaign, imports a set of contacts, and defines one or more parameters that govern how the campaign is to be run. At a designated time, the service provider initiates the campaign, e.g., by providing the contacts to a set of telephone servers that set-up and manage the telephone calls to the targets of the campaign. During a given outbound call, as noted above, a recipient may be afforded an option to connect to a third party contact center, e.g., to speak to the customer representative. In such implementations, the hosted solution typically is integrated directly with the call center's on-premises automatic call distributor (ACD). The direct connection is used by the hosted solution to obtain information about contact center performance that, in turn, may be used to adjust one or more service parameters.
While having a direct connection between the hosted solution and the call center ACD may appear to be desirable, it significantly increases the time needed to deploy the managed service, and it presents complex and sometimes costly integration and operational issues.